Workshops and Mentoring for business organisations for staff and team development!

Anthony has conducted workshops in stand-up comedy since 2002. He is now a regular mentor for Leicester Comedy Festival's Stand-Up Challenge in which business people are coached to perform a night of stand-up for charity.

Stand-up workshops and/or one to one mentoring.

The workshops and mentoring guide you to create and perform comedy material and are not only useful for budding stand-ups but also useful for Businesses, Universities and Schools. The workshops and mentoring are also excellent ways in which to build and improve confidence in your students or staff. The length, location, dates and timing of workshops can usually be fitted flexibly into the day or evening, whatever suits each business.

"Anthony gave me the confidence to present and speak in different ways that I had not imagined before. This has helped me enormously in my work life. He's was a brilliant coach. His intervention style was convincing and engaging."

- Bernard Szczech - IBM

"Anthony coached me for the Stand Up Challenge in 2015 and his support was invaluable in giving me the professional hints and tips that come with experience, from pace and material to stage presence Anthony was very supportive"

"I attended a comedy workshop ran by Anthony. He had an excellent, supportive style and built a fantastic rapport with the group. We were new to each other and he immediately put us at ease and created an atmosphere where we were happy to open up, share ideas and present to each other. He enabled a situation where feedback was given by peers in a form which was constructive and well received. I would thoroughly recommend Anthony for anyone looking for a well run workshop targeted toward opening people up and drawing out their best ideas".

- Duncan Clarke (Business Challenge)

*** SCROLL DOWN TO SEE FULL TESTIMONIALS ***

"Anthony clearly has a massive talent himself, which he unselfishly shared. His skills in mentoring & coaching the Challenge contestants were inspiring..."

- Debra Heighton (Stand Up Challenge Contestant 2015)

"His input was focused on adding value to my act, by way of him either sharing new ideas, developing the literal content of my existing material and often throwing in something completely left field that shed a new way of delivering a great line"

- Andy Morris (De Montfort University)

"Anthony provided invaluable inspiration, support and guidance, which helped me get on stage in front of 350 people, tell jokes and even generate a few laughs!"

Simon Gray, Chief Executive – Nottingham Means Business-

“Equally important, Anthony was able to help me to develop my own style of observational comedy, based on my life experiences. He didn’t try and pigeon-hole me into a particular style that suited him. Given that other trainees had very different styles, it was clear that his training methods were adaptable to any style of comedy"

- SuCH contestant, Pete Miller (The Miller Partnership)

"As part of the challenge we were assigned a mentor – at first I wasn’t sure how you could be taught to be funny, but it was less about that and more about giving you the tools to have the best chance of developing your style and conveying your humour.

Chris White - CPMG Architects Limited

"The series of workshops made it easy for my first performance in the stand up world. It was like i'd already done 50 gigs"

- Richard Holmes (Workshop attendee)

Further Testimonials

“During my first initiation into the comedy stand-up world, I was delighted to meet Mr Anthony King. Without his advice & patience, I would not have been able to perform in the 2015 stand-up challenge. Anthony clearly has a massive talent himself, which he unselfishly shared. His skills in mentoring & coaching the Challenge contestants were inspiring. The tips & help Anthony provided were not only invaluable for the SUC, but also, in going forward with this ‘challenging’, but, rewarding endeavour into the world of Comedy. When the time comes for me to prepare for another event, I would welcome Anthony’s support & guidance”

- Debra Heighton (Stand Up Challenge Contestant 2015)

"I had the pleasure of being mentored by Anthony King in preparation for my first stand up comedy session.

Needless to say trying out stand up comedy is hugely daunting so the guiding hand of a great mentor was hugely valuable.

As a mentor to me, Anthony was a calm influence and a brilliant listener. He took quality time to meet with me on my terms and to focus on my ideas for lines and stories, keen to ensure that what I wanted to do was at the heart of my act. His input was focused on adding value to my act, by way of him either sharing new ideas, developing the literal content of my existing material and often throwing in something completely left field that shed a new way of delivering a great line. He was never precious over his input and would respect my decision even when I decided to go with my own content.

He was able to open up new trains of thought, explore everyday observations in detail and also offer great technical theory which he shared many times in our interactions. Understanding the structure of stand up and seeing things from a range of perspectives enabled me to refine my act to a point where I was really happy with what I had to share. My approach was always valued and respected but enriched by his input. Where he added value to my work he explained his rationale and how in his experience in delivering comedy routines how audiences might react and why.

He is insightful and his critical theory on mentoring allowed to me to perform confidently and to look back without regrets.

I specialise in mentoring in my work and see Anthony possessing fantastic abilities as a mentor with a rich career to inform his input no matter what level of comedy. He was a joy to work with using the tool of laughter to learn.

Highly recommended! Thanks Anthony"

- Andy Morris

“When I volunteered for the Stand-Up Challenge, I was extremely nervous about the idea of standing on a stage with the sole purpose of making an audience laugh. It’s a long way from the normal public speaking that I do, where I introduce the odd note of levity into what is otherwise intended to be an informative lecture. However, my fears melted away as soon as I met up with Anthony to start my ‘training’, because he is such an excellent tutor.

“We started by reviewing some rough drafts I had made of some potential material. He was extremely encouraging throughout, suggesting ways in which the material could be made funnier – or just funny! – and his positive approach made me feel much more comfortable that I could actually do this, without dying on stage or making a total fool of myself. Most of that early material didn’t make the cut, but the important point was that Anthony helped me to see how I could be amusing and that there are no limits to the subjects that I could cover.

“Equally important, Anthony was able to help me to develop my own style of observational comedy, based on my life experiences. He didn’t try and pigeon-hole me into a particular style that suited him. Given that other trainees had very different styles, it was clear that his training methods were adaptable to any style of comedy. The result was a successful (I think) comedy set that was very largely based on my life as a tax adviser, which is not the most obviously promising point!

“On top of this, when we all got together to practice our sets, Anthony had developed a series of exercises to help us get used to the actual mechanics of stand-up comedy: getting up on stage, opening the act, coming off stage, etc. By the time any of us actually started our material, we had all become more comfortable with these aspects, so that getting started was part of a natural process.

“Overall, I cannot praise Anthony’s training enough. He is encouraging, knowledgeable and very experienced and I think it is a tribute to his training that several of us have gone on to perform new sets for a variety of other causes.”

- Pete Miller (The Miller Partnership)

“On the face of it, stand-up comedy should be easy, right? When I first decided to take part in a charity stand-up challenge, even those friends and colleagues who wouldn’t normally think twice about mickey-taking stood down and generally said ‘fair play, you wouldn’t get me doing that.’ That was a sign that I was about to embark on something that could be truly terrifying.

"As part of the challenge we were assigned a mentor – at first I wasn’t sure how you could be taught to be funny, but it was less about that and more about giving you the tools to have the best chance of developing your style and conveying your humour. Anthony didn’t try to direct his own style and humour through us; more that he set us up to be able to walk on stage with confidence and have a basic understanding of some key rights and wrongs and work within that. I remember including ‘borrowed’ jokes and Anthony advised that there was no better feeling than a crowd laughing at your own ‘original’ material – this proved to be true. The feeling I had when I walked off stage was a buzz that could pretty match every other emotion I’ve had, and I’ve scored important goals and taken important wickets in finals and this was up there. Anthony definitely had a part to play in creating the opportunity to achieve that.”